Political stories, opinions, comments and analysis

Genius is a person who has a very high (i.e. more than the smart) Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

So, in order to describe a person as "genius", he or she must gain above-smart score in the pre-existing standard IQ test. This criterion is, however, wrong.

So, what is the genius?

The genius asks simple questions which appear silly for the public (normal people).

Imagine that Newton stood at the lecture hall and asked his professor why does the apple fall on the ground? what would be the reaction of both the professor and the students? I'm pretty sure no one would like to be in his place.

The genius is someone with different (abnormal) thinking in the right direction.

Newton, for example, reversed what appeared to us as fact, and backwardly reached the gravity laws.

In his thirties, Einstein professed his revolutionary Relativity Theory. He asked himself about what seemed to normal people as a fact; why does the light velocity which is originated from moving object still stable? where does the velocity of the moving object go?

Current genius evaluation is wrong.

There is no defined reference to evaluate the genius other than his achievement in certain field. In other words, the genius is genius within his field, but not within a category of different fields, such as mathematics and psychology, like the IQ test suggests.

Another well-known fraud is the Intelligent Mental Arithmetic (IMA) which is a program claimed to boost children's intelligence, based on Asian counting scale. It's totally based on counting and solving mathematical problems exclusively.

However, does intelligence relate to mathematics exclusively?

Advertisement : Inelligent Mental Arithmetic, Philippines

In fact, this type of training depends on enhancing recalling the short-term memory which with practice is saved in neurons as neuro-chemical substance and it also increase the neuronal synapses, so the enrolled child has more abilities to recall the mathematical processes due to goal-oriented exercises.

For example, a 4-year-old child plays one of sophisticated symphonies is not different than a child who solves complicated mathematical problems after enrolling the mentioned IMA.

What makes the genius so?

Besides imagination and curiosity, the genius is not distracted.

Most people are distracted and embedded within "normal" life. Some people search for the wealth, others for fame and reputation, and some people are busy making living and raising their kids.

The genius is not distracted by those things, even if he or she holds some of them. The genius finds time for observation, contemplation and thinking.

Are nerds smart?

Even though nerds do not interact socially like normal people and so they lack of normal "social skills", they have time to think, try and imagine.

They spend more than normal people performing their hobbies; either it is video games or hacking websites.

The Israeli forces assassinated Palestinian activist two days ago. For a moment, it is just a daily headline in Palestine diaries, however, the event is a turning point in Palestine, at least, I have noticed that incidence, which supposed to be an ordinary daily event, left a very deep and reactionary effect on the Palestinian youth.

Basil Al-Araj (31), Palestinian pharmacist, young intellectual and anti-occupation's activist. He theorized on the individual armed struggle against the Israeli occupation in Palestine. He was a talented public speaker which allowed him to be an effective theorist on the youth and used to criticize the Palestinian factions, although he was adherent to the idea of armed struggle which is still adopted by some Palestinian factions.

Basil's striking idea was: The real intellectual is the one who clashes with the invader, otherwise he or she would be a "fake intellectual".

He wanted to prove his philosophy, so he and five of his comrades formed a small armed cell aimed to hunt the Israeli forces in the West Bank. However, the Palestinian Authority's intelligence interrogated him and his partners and jailed them afterwards. They were released after six months amid protests and the anger of the public opinion. Israeli forces detained his partners, but Basil preferred to escape till his assassination after he refused to surrender.

The iconic hero:

He became an iconic revolutionary in a matter of days. This can be easily demonstrated by the number and the size of demonstrations after the assassination.

Funerals were held in the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem, Haifa and Gaza. Even the Palestinians in exile, particularly in Syria and Lebanon, launched protests and praised him as a national hero.

Moreover, over 160 million users interacted with the story in social media, according to local news agency analysed the hashtags.

The reverse effect:

The Israeli forces wanted to get rid of armed man, but they in fact, made an iconic hero who attracts the youth and who scarified with his own self for his people and homeland.

Undoubtedly, there will be many people, especially among the youth, who will walk on the footsteps of Basil Al-Araj.

Trump was aware of the importance of Israel in the domestic and foreign US politics more than any other US president.
Israel was the only non-US state where Trump ran a parallel presidential campaign. He also included moving the US embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem as an independent item among his presidential promises.
Moreover, Trump's speech to the Israel Lobby (American Israel Public Affairs Commitee-AIPAC) was, in fact, an exhibition to his history of supporting Israel.

I speak to you today as a lifelong supporter and true friend of Israel. (CHEERS, APPLAUSE)
...40th Salute to Israel Parade, the largest-single gathering in support of the Jewish state.
(APPLAUSE)
In 2001, ... I sent my plane because I backed the mission for Israel 100 percent.
...It was a very dangerous time for Israel and frankly for anyone supporting Israel. Many people turned down this honor. I did not. I took the risk and I'm glad I did. — From Trump's speech to AIPAC.

However, prominent American Jewish billionaires preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. For instance, Haim Saban, Sheldon Adelson (the owner of the bestselling Israeli daily paper Israel HaYom) endorsed Hillary in the US elections.

In fact it is not a paradox when Trump announced complete bias to Israel while the American Jewish billionaires turned their faces to Hillary, because Donald Trump knew the game rules in the US politics which requires their approval since they own the media and the bipartisan pressure groups in the congress, for example.

On other hand, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Cabinet found Trump's bias towards Israel an opportunity that should be taken for Israel's geopolitical interests.
Israel opposed Iran nuclear deal which Trump threatened to cancel in many occasions, and Israel will escape the US regulations on constructing new Israeli settlements in Trump's mandate.
Although president Trump did not mention the Jews in the Holocaust Memorial statement, the Israeli officials remained silent.
“Occasionally, there is even a temptation for Israel to benefit from anti-Semitism. In recent years, rather than focus on the need to fight anti-Semitism in France, Israel called on French Jews to come live in Israel.”

The US (besides Saudi Arabia)found what was called Al-Mujahideen(Al-Qaeda and its ideological affiliated groups now-a-days) in order to topple the Soviet-auxiliary communist government in Afghanistan, two decades later, Al-Qaeda attacked the WTC towers in New York.

The same scenario, but in faster pace, is happening now in Trump's era. The man is strongly supported by hardcore Antisemite Christians, like David Duke who publically preach hatred against Jews.
During the month of January [2017], 48 bomb threats were called in to Jewish community centers across the country. Also last month, a neo-Nazi made national news by promising to hold a march in Whitefish, Mont., to intimidate the town’s small Jewish population.

Jews started seeing their names bracketed with a series of parentheses in harassing tweets, signaling that the person had been identified as a Jew. The image became known as the Jewish cowbell and its source was traced to neo-Nazis and white nationalists.

At least 17 Jewish centers, including four schools, received bomb threats on Monday [today] and have been evacuated in yet another such wave sweeping the United States, according to local reports.
This is the fifth such wave in less than two months. Last week, at least 11 Jewish centers in five U.S. states were targeted with bomb threats in a single day.
However, Zionists of Tel-Aviv have realized that the exploitation of antisemitism does not work all the time, so Israel's opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) expressed outrage today over the wave of anti-Semitic incidents and threats in the United States and said Israel should be preparing for the worst - a wave of Diaspora Jews fleeing to the Jewish state.

Twenty years ago, Mrs. Elayyan finished her second decade duration of infertility. She and her husband had finally decided to undergo the relatively new assisted reproductive technique at that time in Palestine.

Nine months later, their parental longing and patience were cooled when they heard the high-pitched crying of their son, who was named 'Mahmoud'.

Mrs. Elayyan and her husband --who had been diagnosed as infertile couple for 20 years duration—were obsessed about their new son and they managed to offer him the best education they can.
Mr. Elayyan passed away leaving Mahmoud to be raised by his mother.

At the age of 18, Mahmoud joined faculty of Nursing upon his desire. Two years after his enrollment, he was shot in his head by Israeli forces while he was participating in a demonstration in Ramallah.

Mahmoud the nurse

Mahmoud the protester

Eventually, Mahmoud died in November 19 2015 due to brain injury.

Mahmoud the martyr

I am thinking how many times does his mother open his closet to smell his clothes?

On 31 May 2010, Mavi Marmara the flagship of Gaza freedom flotilla was attacked in the international waters of the Mediterranean Sea by Israeli special forces. Nine Turkish activists were killed in the attack. The flotilla was heading to Gaza strip in attempt to break the siege.

Turkey laid down three conditions for the normalization with Israel. The first condition was an apology from Israel. The second was the payment of the compensation and the third one is to end the blockade on Gaza.

However, Turkish and Israeli officials met in Switzerland on Thursday where a preliminary reconciliation deal was set to be reached between the two countries, a senior Turkish official said.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretzreportedthat the agreement between the two countries includes the following:
1. In the framework of the agreement, Israel will pay Turkey $20 million in compensation, which will be transferred to a special fund that will in turn provide grants to the families of the Turkish citizens who were killed or injured in the Israel Navy's takeover of the Mavi Marmara.

2. Turkey and Israel will renew and normalize their relations and return their respective ambassadors to Tel Aviv and Ankara.

3. The Turkish parliament will pass a law that will annul all legal claims against Israeli Defense Force officers and soldiers in connection with the flotilla incident and will prevent future claims from being filed.

4. Turkey will expel Saleh al-Aruri, a senior member of Hamas' military wing, who is based in Istanbul.

5. Once the final agreement between the two countries has been signed, Turkey and Israel will explore cooperating in the natural gas field – with Turkey buying gas from Israel's offshore oil fields and the laying of a gas pipeline that would run via Turkey and through which Israel would export gas to Europe.

According to the leaked items, Gaza blockade will not be completely ended although it was the reason for murdering nine Turkish activists in the international water of the Mediterranean sea. Their mission was clear; to break the siege over Gaza.

It's about Gas

"Turkey is preparing to cut imports of LPG from Russia by a significant 25% next year. This puts a major damper on the Gazprom -Botas Petroleum Turkish Stream project, a project that was designed to connect Turkey to Europe through Greece. When that deal was discussed, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry lobbied the Greek government to diversify its supply by turning to U.S. fuel instead of cheaper Russian imports."Fifty nine percent of Turkey's gas imported from Russia, and Turkey seeks to replace the Russian gas with Israeli one. The sales volume from Turkey is equivalent of 17 percent of Gazprom’s total exports outside the former Soviet Union, according to company data.

Turkey's Gas sources in 2012

On the other hand, Israel is looking forward to export its gas to Europe, which is about 500 km from Israeli coasts and Turkey constitutes a feasible route. Turkey also controls parts of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, between Israel and Europe.

Israel's natural gas could go to Europe through Turkey since building pipelines under the Mediterranean is costly and difficult. The Leviathan gas field is believed to have a reserve of more than 620 billion cubic meters.

On November 13, Paris witnessed series of coordinated terrorist attacks started with suicide bombings at 09:20 pm, outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, the northern suburb of Paris.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks and French president François Hollande announced that "France is in war".

Questions seeking for answers:

Iraqi intelligence sent a dispatch saying the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, had ordered an attack on coalition countries fighting against them in Iraq and Syria, as well as on Iran and Russia, through bombings or other attacks in the days ahead. So the French intelligence had been informed about immediate terrorist attacks in France. Perhaps the French Home security did not take that seriously or there was failure of performance on the ground.

However, French-born Israeli journalist says Jewish community has been on alert for months amid fears of mass terror attack. "The Bataclan theater, site of Friday’s deadliest attack, was until recently Jewish-owned, said Sellem. As the site of annual fundraisers for the IDF, it is frequently targeted by anti-Israel protests, phone calls and emails, he said".

But how could the French Jewish community be warned about imminent terrorist attacks while French society was unaware of such attacks?

The Intercept has reviewed 10 high-profile jihadi attacks carried out in Western countries between 2013 and 2015..., and in each case some or all of the perpetrators were already known to the authorities before they executed their plot. In other words, most of the terrorists involved were not ghost operatives who sprang from nowhere to commit their crimes; they were already viewed as a potential threat, yet were not subjected to sufficient scrutiny by authorities under existing counterterrorism powers. Some of those involved in last week’s Paris massacre, for instance, were already known to authorities; at least three of the men appear to have been flagged at different times as having been radicalized, but warning signs were ignored.

But why were these warning signs ignored?

In Al Jazeera’s Head to Head episode, former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Michael Flynn confirms to Mehdi Hasan that not only had he studied the DIA memo predicting the West’s backing of an Islamic State in Syria when it came across his desk in 2012, but even asserts that the White House’s sponsoring of radical jihadists (that would emerge as ISIL and Nusra) against the Syrian regime was “a willful decision.”

Former DIA director Michael Flynn: It was a decision to fund, arm ISIS, source: Al Jazeera via Youtube.The Guardian published a worthy title: "Paris attacks: latest evidence points to wider conspiracy", which included:"New evidence emerging from the investigation into the Paris attacks points to a conspiracy significantly wider than the nine jihadi thought to have carried out the killings and that was orchestrated primarily by disaffected young Europeans."

However, they focused on the circle of terrorists, their sympathizers and assistants, rather than focusing on a widespectral view. "For many, claims that the attackers belong to ISIS is a deal breaker. For these individuals, ISIS is a shadowy terrorist organization that supports itself and has created a caliphate in eastern Syria and western Iraq that can scarcely be defeated (except when the Russians bomb it). However, the facts do not support such a shallow understanding of the ISIS terrorist organization. ISIS was entirely created, funded and directed by the United States, Britain, France and other NATO countries. Its actions have been coordinated by the Anglo-American Intelligence apparatus for geopolitical purposes all across the world both at home and abroad. For this reason, the declaration that ISIS committed a terrorist attack in Paris is by no means a get-out-of-jail-free card for the Western Intelligence apparatus. Instead, it is the trademark of their handiwork. Please see these articles for more information on the nature of ISIS: here, here, here and here.

While the information presented above may not be enough evidence to conclude that the Paris attacks were false flag attacks, it is reason enough to question the official story thus far. If these attacks are indeed placed in the lap of ISIS, however, all fingers should immediately point to NATO and the Atlanticist Intelligence apparatus. It is they who control ISIS and they who bear the responsibility for its actions."

Arab uprisings started as the natural fate of longstanding totalitarianism, corruption and lack of social justice.

The economic situation played a major role to evoke the spontaneous and unexpected popular demonstrations in central squares.

At the beginning, Tunisia witnessed massive demonstrations ended by throwing the dictator, but the spark was a successful suicide attempt by surfed vegetable seller who was insulted by the municipal police. Contagiously, Egypt, Syria, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen followed Tunisia respectively.

Where to be and why?

Modern capital regimes blame Stalin for killing 50 million Soviets, but they did not mention his role in preserving the Soviet Union united.

Russia is now the largest country in the world by landmass (about 11% of world's area), although the country is quite various regarding to religion, ethnicity and culture.

Moreover, Stalin's Russia played a major role to defeat the Nazi army, due to Soviet tough resistance and Russia's climate as well.

Democracy is not always the magic solution for nations, especially those who face immediate foreign aggression.

The case of Iraq

The Anglo-American invasion toppled Iraq's Saddam Hussien, but we now know that Iraq was a leading Arab state. No one spoke about the skillful Iraqi scientists who were so qualified in their fields. The socialist republic offered free basic and high education as well as state-funded scholarships.

Current US-architected Iraqi regime is non-democratic, sectarian and corrupt. For example, the electricity runs for few hours daily in one of the hottest cities in the Arab world.

My point is not support dictators, but to oppose the much worse alternatives.

Syria again

A feeling of anger and sadness covered me last night, when I watched the Syrian rebels celebrating the successive Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian army. Then I wrote on twitter, If the pro-NATO rebels had an ounce of patriotism, they would defend their homeland.

In case the Syrian rebels seized the power in Syria, let's imagine the scenario in points:

Political and social stability will be just a wish and Al-Qaeda will kill non-Sunni as will as opponent Sunnis.

The Western-backed Syrian opposition has no true base on the ground, and the Libyan scenario will be repeated (i.e. unmerciful fight on the authority).

Syria will be just another Arab Zionist-controlled state.

The Syrian victims will be doubled, if not tripled, since most of opposition forces are sectarian and non-organized.

The axis of resistance will be profoundly halted. Currently, it is the only axis which inhibits Israel's aspirations in the region.

A picture of 18-month-old Palestinian toddler who was burned alive by Jewish extremists (July 31).

Brief record:
One-and-a-half year old Ali Saad Dawabsha became the latest victim of Israeli violence on July 31. He was burned to death. Other members of his family were also severely burned in a Jewish settlers’ attack on their home in the village of Duma, near Nablus, in the West Bank.

One year ago, three Israeli Jews admitted kidnapping and burning Palestinian teenage to death. Mohammed Abu Khdeir was found burned to death after disappearing in July 2nd, 2014. Forensic analysis of his remains suggested he was still alive when he was set alight.

On June 18, extremist Jews set fire to “Fish and Bread” Church in Tiberias located close to Tiberias lake. Jews also wrote racial slogans on the walls of the church.
Yishai Schlissel, an Utra-orthodox rabbi stabbed six people at Jerusalem's annual Gay Pride. A 16-year-old girl 'Shira' died as a result of the attack at Hadassah University Medical center.Benzi Gopstein, leader of anti-Arab group Lehava, allegedly called for the burning of churches at a panel held this week for Jewish yeshiva students, using ancient Halachic, or Jewish law, to condemn what he called Christian "idol worship."
When a journalist at the panel informed Gopstein that he was on camera and could be arrested for his comments, Gopstein said he is prepared to spend 50 years in jail for his remarks, according to a video of the panel released by the Haredi website Kikar Shabbat.

Israeli President Rivlin was threatened by suspected Jewish extremists after his comments on the death of an 18-month-old Palestinian amid worsening tension between Israel and Palestine.Ben-Gurion - Rabbi Herzog deal:
The first Israeli prime minister considered the army service by ultra-Orthodox Jews a "First and Foremost, a Great Moral Issue", as Ben-Gurion replied on Herzog's letter. However, "The exchange of letters between the two dealt with Ben-Gurion's intention of reducing the scale of the postponement of army service, which had been granted some ten years before to ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students and which in fact gave most of them completeexemptionfrom military duty."

Silent conflict: Secular versus religious Jews:
Secular Zionists blame ultra-orthodox Jews for the economic crises in Israel. The latter usually don't work nor participate in social or military activities. Moreover, Haredim Jews usually have large families and they are almost totally dependent on the state's funds.

Haredim [Ultra-orthodox Jews who refuse the modern secular lifestyle] typically had large families and it was hard for them to survive when Haredi men would
stay in the yeshiva and refuse to work in the Israeli economy. These funds allowed yeshiva
students to support themselves and it dissuaded them from looking at finding employment in the Israeli workforce. The Haredim clung to this provision intensely, often fighting to keep funding strong despite the fact it was coming from the Israeli government. They tried confronting this paradox in various ways, but were mostly unsuccessful. For example, establishing an independent social service system was meant to counter the dependence on the Israeli government for important social services. However, groups like the Neturei Karta have been successful in staying independent of Israeli social services, thanks to their commitment to resist Zionism as much as possible. —"Haredim vs. Secular: Israel’s Internal Culture War and the Fight for Israeli Identity", Levitt Fellowship Research, Hamilton College, 2012

The ‘Equal Burden’ law:

The Knesset approved the ‘Equal Burden’ law in 2014, according to which thousands of Haredi Yeshivah students will be drafted into the "Israeli Defense Forces" beginning in 2017. The opposition protested the vote, and even in the coalition there was disagreement after MK Chetboun (Jewish Home Party) voted against the law.

The inevitable explosion:
Haredim Jews who refuse the modern life, and work nothing, but preaching hatred against Christians, Muslims and even secular Zionists and Jewish gays as well. They also have their loyal followers who are ready to execute their 'holy orders'.
Undoubtedly, Jewish extremists will keep assaults against the mentioned groups and/or Non-Jewish holy places. However, the conflict will be escalated someday if they keep their hatred crimes in the same pace.
For instance, what will happen if they attack Holy Sepulcher (Church of the Resurrection) or Al-Aqsa Mosque?

As world powers and Iran reach a deadline Tuesday – which may be extended – for talks on the Islamic regime’s nuclear program, Israel is taking steps to prepare for a military strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities so as to defend itself from the impending threat.

Iran has refused to allow inspections of its covert nuclear sites and declared it will use advanced centrifuges as soon as a deal is met, meaning the leading state sponsor of terrorism could potentially obtain a nuclear arsenal within weeks, all while getting billions of dollars in sanctions relief through a nuclear deal.

The Hebrew-language Walla! reported Tuesday that it has learned from a foreign source that IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot has appointed Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Yair Golan to head a special team tasked with examining the military options against Iran.

The team would explore what kind of striking options are available to Israel after a deal with Iran is signed.

By appointing such a senior IDF official to the team, it is estimated that Israel is considering the signing of a deal to be a game changer which would require a serious reevaluation of the regional situation, and likely necessitate military action against Iran.

Sources close to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) say there is a pressing need to present a powerful military option against Iran, a reality which is being used to demand that the defense budget not be reduced by the Knesset.

For over 15 years the IDF has been examining the possibility of military action against Iran’s ever burgeoning nuclear program, and the majority of the funding for such preparedness has gone to the Israeli Air Force (IAF) and the IDF’s intelligence branch.

“Iran is lying – what do we do?”

A source close to Ya’alon was quoted by Walla! saying, “nothing has changed regarding the military option. Our working assumption is that Iran is lying all the time, beyond the fact that it is funding and directing terror in the Middle East. It (Iran) is our most bitter enemy today, even though we don’t share a physical border with it, and we must not put off any kind of preparedness against it.”

“In the end we don’t believe Iran. We don’t believe the (nuclear) project will be stopped. Therefore the (military) option will remain. …We need to be ready also for the day in which Israel will need to make decisions alone. (What) if it becomes clear they are pushing the envelope in breach of the agreement? Or if Iran goes down deep underground (with its nuclear facilities)? And if new sites are found? Will we wait for the US to take care of them?”

“You have to prepare yourself for all of the threats. Not only for Gaza and Lebanon,” added the source. “The military option costs money but the more time goes by, you’re better prepared to carry out the mission.”

Indicating Israel’s growing preparedness ahead of a potential military clash with Iran, the IAF held a special drill with the Greek air force two months ago, in which roughly 100 members of the IAF took part including dozens of crews from all the F-16i squadrons.

The unusual drill had IAF pilots operating in unfamiliar territory for a night and the following day, and included simulations of strikes and dogfights involving dozens of fighter jets.

Most importantly, in the drill the Greek army reportedly deployed advanced anti-missile defense systems similar to the Russian S-300 that Moscow sold to Iran and has yet to ship. The advanced S-300 system is considered to be a major challenge in carrying out an airstrike in that it can shoot down rockets as well as jets.

By Catherine Shakdam |
Although ISIS has certainly been sold as an Islamic movement, everything it professes and teaches stands against Islam and its teachings. This divide actually goes beyond Islam’s great schism – which schism it needs to be noted remains part of this myth Saudi Arabia has been so eager on selling the world.

If indeed religious disagreements have occurred over the centuries and if Muslims have in truth fought and argue over the legitimacy, legality and religious superiority of their schools of thoughts and judicial principles, scholars did so in the knowledge and express belief that while men are flawed, Islam is perfect.

Islam’s disagreements came about out from a desire to walk better on God’s path, not to obliterate people with an implacable and merciless truth.

Looking back at the long line of prophets, from Adam to Noah, Ibrahim, Jesus, Yehia and Mohammed (PBUT), all shared in the Oneness which is God’s ultimate command, God’s boundless mercy onto His creation and His injunction of peace. And if those holy messengers came at different times and places in our history, the essence of their message has been as permanent and immovable as God’s will. From Adam’s first cries of remorse and calls for forgiveness, to Prophet Mohammed’s last breath, God’s message onto us has always been Islam, as Islam means submission. In truth, the only real freedom which was ever given to us is that to submit body and soul to The Creator of All things.

Islam did not start at Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), rather it was reborn with him and through him; a last call before the sunset, a last mercy and guidance for us to follow – or not – a last ray of hope before evil can get its fill and the last chapter of our fate written down.

Islam was on the first day as it will be on the last day – it is us which have called it many things in our need to possess and label the divine. It is us again which have strayed and plotted, coveted and perverted to serve very earthly ambitions.

Wahhabism is no more than an engineered perversion, a division, an abomination which has but spread like a cancer onto the Islamic world and now threatens to destroy all religions.

Wahhabism and its legions: Al Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram and all the rest of it, are but the manifestation of a reactionary atheist movement which seeks the death of all faiths.

Wahhabism is not of Islam and Islam will never be of Wahhabism – it is a folly to conceive that Islam would ever sanction murder, looting and atrocious barbarism. Islam opposes despotism, injustice, infamy , deceits, greed, extremism, asceticism – everything which is not balanced and good, fair and merciful, kind and compassionate.

If anything, Wahhabism is the very negation of Islam. As many have called it before – Islam is not Wahhabism. Wahhabism is merely the misguided expression of one man’s political ambition – Mohammed Abdel Wahhab, a man who was recruited by Empire Britain to erode at the fabric of Islam and crack the unity of its ummah (community).

As Wahhabism began its land and mind grab in Hijaz – now known as Saudi Arabia – one family, Al Saud saw in this violent and reactionary school of thought a grand opportunity to claim and retain power. This unholy alliance has blotted the skies of Arabia for centuries, darkening the horizon with its miasm.

Wahhabism has now given birth to a monstrous abomination – extreme radicalism; a beast which has sprung and fed from Salafis and Wahhabis poison, fueled by the billions of Al Saud’s petrodollars; a weapon exploited by neo-imperialists to justify military interventions in those wealthiest corners of the world.

But though those powers which thought themselves cunning by weaving a network of fear around the world to better assert and enslave are losing control over their brain-child, ISIS and its sisters in hate and fury, as they all have gone nuclear, no longer bound by the chains their fathers shackled them with.

ISIS’s obscene savagery epitomises the violence which is inherent and central to Wahhabism and Salafism, its other deviance. And though the world knows now the source of all terror, no power has yet dared speak against it, instead the world has chosen to hate its designated victim – Islam.

In July 2013, the European Parliament identified Wahhabism as the main source of global terrorism, and yet the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, condemning ISIS in the strongest terms, has insisted that “the ideas of extremism, radicalism and terrorism do not belong to Islam in any way”. But then again the Grand Mufti might remain oblivious to the history of Wahhabism or what Wahhabism actually professes.

Wahhabism 101

During the 18th century, revivalist movements sprang up in many parts of the Islamic world as the Muslim imperial powers began to lose control of peripheral territories. In the west at this time, governments were beginning to separate church from state, but this secular ideal was a radical innovation: as revolutionary as the commercial economy that Europe was concurrently devising. No other culture regarded religion as a purely private activity, separate from such worldly pursuits as politics, so for Muslims the political fragmentation of society was also a religious problem. Because the Quran had given Muslims a sacred mission – to build a just economy in which everybody is treated with equity and respect – the political well-being of the ummah was always a matter of sacred import. If the poor were oppressed, the vulnerable exploited or state institutions corrupt, Muslims were obliged to make every effort to put society back on track.

If 18th-century reformers were convinced that should Muslims ever regain lost power and prestige, they would have to return to the fundamentals of their faith, ensuring that God – rather than materialism or worldly ambition – dominated the political order, Wahhabism would come to pervert such desires.

There was nothing militant about this “fundamentalism”; not yet, rather, it was a grassroots attempt to reorient society and did not involve jihad.

Only, if the idea of going back to the root of Islam at a time when society had strayed from the path was indeed laudable, Wahhabism would work to betray such ideal by twisting on its head Islam’s most sacred pillars, perverting Islamic law and the interpretation of its scriptures to serve the mighty and enslave the weak.

Under Wahhabism’s interpretation of Islam, women reverted to being objectified. Those many great women Islam saw rise under the strict protection of the Quran, those models Muslim women came to look up to and aspire to become – Maryam, Khadija, Fatma, Zaynab, Mohammed Abdel Wahhab would have had locked up in chains in their home.

When Islam gave women their rightful place within society, Wahhabism denied them everything.

And for those of you who continue to live under the premise that Islam is profoundly unfair against women, do remember it is not Islam but rather men’s interpretation of it which is the source of your ire.

Islam secured women’ status according to God’s will. Islam poses both men and women o a equal footing in terms of their faith – it is only in their duties and responsibilities which they differ, not worthiness. Islam calls on men to provide for women and offer them security, both financial and physical. Under Islam women are free to marry, divorce and work. Under Islam women cannot be bought, bartered or oppressed. Under Islam women enjoy more freedom than most western women have been given. It is society which has denied them those rights, not Islam. Read the Quran and you will see!

Like Martin Luther, Abdel Wahhab claimed he wanted to return to the earliest teachings of Islam and eject all later medieval accretions. To achieve such ambitions he opposed Sufism and Shia Islam, labelling them as heretical innovations (bidah) as both opposed tyranny in faith. He went on to urge all Muslims to reject the learned exegesis developed over the centuries by the ulema (scholars) and interpret the texts for themselves, or rather under his guidance.

This naturally incensed the clergy and threatened local rulers, who believed that interfering with these popular devotions would cause social unrest. Eventually, however, Wahhab found a patron in Mohammed Ibn Saud, a chieftain of Najd who adopted his ideas. Ibn Saud quickly used Wahhabism to support his military campaigns for plunder and territory, insisting such violence was all in the name of the greater good.

To this day Al Saud’s house is following in such bloody footsteps.

Although the scriptures were so central to Abdel Wahhab’s ideology, by insisting that his version of Islam alone had validity, he distorted the Quranic message in the most violent way. The Quran firmly states that “There must be no coercion in matters of faith” (2:256).

It rules that Muslims must believe in the revelations of all the great prophets (3:84) and that religious pluralism was God’s will (5:48). Until Wahhabism came knocking, Muslims remained traditionally wary of takfir, the practice of declaring a fellow Muslim to be an unbeliever (kafir). Hitherto Sufism, which had developed an outstanding appreciation of other faith traditions, had been the most popular form of Islam and had played an important role in both social and religious life. “Do not praise your own faith so exclusively that you disbelieve all the rest,” urged the great mystic Ibn al-Arabi (d.1240). “God the omniscient and omnipresent cannot be confined to any one creed.” It was common for a Sufi to claim that he was a neither a Jew nor a Christian, nor even a Muslim, because once you glimpsed the divine, you left these man-made distinctions behind.

After Wahhab’s death, Wahhabism became more violent, an instrument of state terror. As Al Saud sought to establish an independent kingdom, Abd al-Aziz Ibn Muhammad, Ibn Saud’s son and successor, used takfir to justify the wholesale slaughter of resistant populations. In 1801, his army sacked the holy Shia city of Karbala in what is now Iraq, plundered the tomb of Imam Hussain, and slaughtered thousands of Shias, including women and children; in 1803, in fear and panic, the holy city of Mecca surrendered to the Saudi leader.

Little do we remember the sacking of the holy city of Medina, when Al Saud’s legions ransacked mosques, schools and homes. Al Saud’s army murdered hundreds of men, women and children, deaf to their screams. As imams pleaded for the most sacred relics of Islam to be protected, Al Saud’s men pillaged and looted, setting fire to Medina’s library. Al Saud made an example out of Medina, the very city which proved so welcoming to Islam. On the ground which saw rise the first mosque of Islam, Al Saud soaked the earth red with blood.

Where the footsteps of the last Prophet of God still echoed, Al Saud filled the air with ghastly cries of horrors.

But such terror has been erased from history books. Such tale of blood and savage betrayals have been swallowed whole by Al Saud as this house attempted to re-write history and claim lineage to the house of the prophet.

Eventually, in 1815, the Ottomans despatched Muhammad Ali Pasha, governor of Egypt, to crush the Wahhabi forces and destroy their capital. But Wahhabism became a political force once again during the First World War when the Saudi chieftain – another Abd al-Aziz – made a new push for statehood and began to carve out a large kingdom for himself in the Middle East with his devout Bedouin army, known as the Ikhwan, the “Brotherhood”.

In the Ikhwan we see the roots of ISIS. To break up the tribes and wean them from the nomadic life which was deemed incompatible with Islam, the Wahhabi clergy had settled the Bedouin in oases, where they learned farming and the crafts of sedentary life and were indoctrinated in Wahhabi Islam. Once they exchanged the time-honoured ghazu raid, which typically resulted in the plunder of livestock, for the Wahhabi-style jihad, these Bedouin fighters became more violent and extreme, covering their faces when they encountered Europeans and non-Saudi Arabs and fighting with lances and swords because they disdained weaponry not used by the Prophet. In the old ghazu raids, the Bedouin had always kept casualties to a minimum and did not attack non-combatants. Now the Ikhwan routinely massacred “apostate” unarmed villagers in their thousands, thought nothing of slaughtering women and children, and routinely slit the throats of all male captives.

In 1915, Abd al-Aziz planned to conquer Hijaz (an area in the west of present-day Saudi Arabia that includes the cities of Mecca and Medina), the Persian Gulf to the east of Najd, and the land that is now Syria and Jordan in the north, but during the 1920s he tempered his ambitions in order to acquire diplomatic standing as a nation state with Britain and the United States. The Ikhwan, however, continued to raid the British protectorates of Iraq, Transjordan and Kuwait, insisting that no limits could be placed on jihad. Regarding all modernisation as bidah, the Ikhwan also attacked Abd al-Aziz for permitting telephones, cars, the telegraph, music and smoking – indeed, anything unknown in Muhammad’s time – until finally Abd al-Aziz quashed their rebellion in 1930.

After the defeat of the Ikhwan, the official Wahhabism of the Saudi kingdom abandoned militant jihad and became a religiously conservative movement.

But the Ikhwan spirit and its dream of territorial expansion did not die, instead it gained new ground in the 1970s, when the Kingdom became central to western foreign policy in the region. Washington welcomed the Saudis’ opposition to Nasserism (the pan-Arab socialist ideology of Egypt’s second president, Gamal Abdel Nasser) and to Soviet influence. After the Iranian Revolution, in 1979 it gave tacit support to the Saudis’ project of countering Shia Islam by Wahhabizing the entire Muslim world.

Just as Nasserism posed a threat to both the Saudis and the U.S. in that it entailed independence and a supranational sense of belonging and solidarity, in opposition to colonialism and feudalism, Iran Shia democratic movement presented too much of a pull for countries in the region to follow to be allowed to shine forth.

And so the wheels of propaganda were set in motion and Iran became western powers and its allies’ designated enemy. Right alongside Soviet Russia, Iran became the source of all evil, while all the while Saudi Arabia was left to industrialize radicalism on a mass scale.

The soaring oil price created by the 1973 embargo – when Arab petroleum producers cut off supplies to the U.S. to protest against the Americans’ military support for Israel – gave the Kingdom all the petrodollars it needed to export its idiosyncratic form of Islam.

The old military jihad to spread the faith was now replaced by a cultural offensive. The Saudi-based Muslim World League opened offices in every region inhabited by Muslims, and the Saudi ministry of religion printed and distributed Wahhabi translations of the Quran, Wahhabi doctrinal texts and the writings of modern thinkers whom the Saudis found congenial, such as Sayyids Abul-A’la Maududi and Qutb, to Muslim communities throughout the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, the United States and Europe. In all these places, they funded the building of Saudi-style mosques with Wahhabi preachers and established madrasas that provided free education for the poor, with, of course, a Wahhabi curriculum.

Slowly Muslims’ understanding of Islam became polluted by Wahhabism and Sunni Muslims began to think and breath Wahhabism, no longer in tune with its own religious tradition, cut off from free-thinking Islam, moderate Islam, compassionate Islam and non-violent Islam.

At the same time, young men from the poorer Muslim countries, such as Egypt and Pakistan, who had felt compelled to find work in the Gulf to support their families, associated their relative affluence with Wahhabism and brought this faith back home with them, living in new neighbourhoods with Saudi mosques and shopping malls that segregated the sexes. The Saudis demanded religious conformity in return for their munificence, so Wahhabi rejection of all other forms of Islam as well as other faiths would reach as deeply into Bradford, England, and Buffalo, New York, as into Pakistan, Jordan or Syria: everywhere gravely undermining Islam’s traditional pluralism.

A whole generation of Muslims, therefore, has grown up with a maverick form of Islam that has given them a negative view of other faiths and an intolerantly sectarian understanding of their own. While not extremist per se, this is an outlook in which radicalism can develop. In the past, the learned exegesis of the ulema, which Wahhabis rejected, had held extremist interpretations of scripture in check; but now unqualified freelancers such as Osama Bin Laden were free to develop highly unorthodox readings of the Quran. To prevent the spread of radicalism, the Saudis tried to deflect their young from the internal problems of the kingdom during the 1980s by encouraging a pan-Islamist sentiment of which the Wahhabi ulema did not approve.

ISIS – the brain child of Wahhabism

Like the Ikhwan before, ISIS represents a rebellion against the official Wahhabism of modern Saudi Arabia. Its swords, covered faces and cut-throat executions all recall the original Brotherhood. But it is unlikely that the ISIS hordes consist entirely of diehard jihadists. A substantial number are probably secularists who resent the status quo in Iraq – Baathists from Saddam Hussein’s regime and former soldiers of his disbanded army.

This would actually explain ISIS’s strong performance against professional military forces. In all likelihood, few of the young recruits are motivated either by Wahhabism or by more traditional Muslim ideals. In 2008, MI5’s behavioural science unit noted that, “far from being religious zealots, a large number of those involved in terrorism do not practise their faith regularly. Many lack religious literacy and could be regarded as religious novices.”

A significant proportion of those convicted of terrorism offences since the 9/11 attacks have been non-observant, or are self-taught. Misguided or disguised ISIS militants are certainly not looking for religious enlightenment; rather they have been sold to a violence which speaks to their own pain and sense of loss.

Two wannabe jihadists who set out from Birmingham for Syria last May had ordered Islam for Dummies from Amazon. ISIS militants are no Muslim devouts, only sociopathic begots.

It would be a mistake to see ISIS as a throwback; it is a thoroughly modern movement which has drawn its inspiration from the Ikhwan crusades. It has become an efficient, self-financing business with assets estimated at $2bn. Its looting, theft of gold bullion from banks, kidnapping, siphoning of oil in the conquered territories and extortion have made it the wealthiest jihadist group in the world. There is nothing random or irrational about ISIS violence. The execution videos are carefully and strategically planned to inspire terror, deter dissent and sow chaos in the greater population.

ISIS is not just a terror army, it is a terror movement with imperialistic ambitions. And if its methods are terrifying and bloody they are hardly an innovation. There too ISIS drew from past examples – Mass killing is after all a thoroughly modern phenomenon, one which western powers gave into many times over.

During the French Revolution, which led to the emergence of the first secular state in Europe, the Jacobins publicly beheaded about 17,000 men, women and children.

The Soviet Bolsheviks, the Khmer Rouge and the Red Guard all used systematic terrorism to purge humanity of corruption.

In the 1990s, Armenia slaughtered hundreds upon hundreds of Azeris in a grand scale flash ethnic cleansing campaign.

Similarly, ISIS uses violence to achieve a single, limited and clearly defined objective that would be impossible without such slaughter. As such, it is another expression of the dark side of modernity – industrial killing to achieve politico-strategic goals.

The caliphate had long been a dead letter politically, but because it symbolised the unity of the ummah and its link with the Prophet, Sunni Muslims mourned its loss as a spiritual and cultural trauma. Yet ISIS’s projected caliphate has no support among ulema internationally and is derided throughout the Muslim world.

That said, the limitations of the nation state are becoming increasingly apparent in our world; this is especially true in the Middle East, which has no tradition of nationalism, and where the frontiers drawn by invaders were so arbitrary that it was well nigh impossible to create a truly national spirit. Here, too, ISIS is not simply harking back to a bygone age but is, however eccentrically, enunciating a modern concern.

The liberal-democratic nation state developed in Europe in part to serve the Industrial Revolution, which made the ideals of the Enlightenment no longer noble aspirations but practical necessities. It is not ideal: its Achilles heel has always been an inability to tolerate ethnic minorities – a failing responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. In other parts of the world where modernisation has developed differently, other polities may be more appropriate. So the liberal state is not an inevitable consequence of modernity; the attempt to produce democracy in Iraq using the colo­nial methods of invasion, subjugation and occupation could only result in an unnatural birth – and so ISIS emerged from the resulting mayhem.

ISIS has declared war against all — Sunnis, Shias, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Yazidis — there is no escaping this reactionary band of Godless criminals and murderers.

Interestingly Saudi Arabia has now become the designated target of ISIS militants. As if playing out a Greek tragedy, ISIS seeks now to strike at its creator, intent on pushing the boundary of the acceptable to reinvent itself not a religion but a radical atheist movement which stands in negation of the Holy, in all its forms and all its manifestations.

If Wahhabism did not scare you, ISIS should.

Maybe just maybe it would be a good idea to choose those allies which intend to defeat and destroy ISIS and deny the one power which started it all – the Kingdom.Source: NEO